[Pete Hill]

Hello,
I am compiling a list of persons who are well-remembered for a variety of reasons but who also happened to serve in some capacity in the First World War. For most of these persons, it is for reasons other than their war record that they are now famous, however.
This list only scratches the surface and I am hoping members will help me flesh it out.

Harry Truman (USA)- President of the United States 1945-1953. He served as a battery commander 129th Field Artillery, attached to the 35th Infantry Division in the US army on the Western Front 1917-18. Known for his bravery, strict discipline, loud profanities during action and his anger and frustration at the Ceasefire order on November 11th, 1918.

J R R Tolkien (UK) - Writer & author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. He served in the British Infantry on the Western Front as a Second Lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers. He took part in the battle at Thiepval Ridge on the Somme, 1916. Contracting Trench Fever, he was invalided out of the army in November of that year.

C S Lewis (Ireland) - Writer & author of the Chronicles of Narnia. He served in the British Infantry on the Western Front as a Lieutenant in the Somerset Light Infantry. Arriving at the front in November 1916, he fought at Arras the following year and was wounded. He spent the remainder of the war assigned to duties in Britain.

Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith (Australia) - World-renowned aviator and pathfinder, made the first Trans-Pacific flight from the USA to Australia in 1928. He first served in the Australian Light-Horse and fought at Gallipoli as a despatch-rider. In 1917 he transferred to the RFC and flew Sopwith Camels, destroying a German two-seater in one action and was wounded in another, having most of his left foot amputated as a result.

Robert Graves (UK) - Writer & poet, author of I, Claudius. Joining up in 1914, he served in the British Infantry as an officier in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and saw active service on the Western front 1915-16. Badly wounded at the Somme, he spent the rest of the war assigned to duties in Britain. He later wrote his famous war memoirs Goodbye to All That

General George S Patton (USA) - US Army General who commanded American forces in Sicily, Italy & North-West Europe during WW2. He served as a Captain in the newly-formed US Army Tank Corps 1917-18. He fought at the Battle of Saint-Mihiel in September 1918 and was badly wounded in the upper thigh.

General Douglas MacCarthur (USA) - US Army General who commanded US forces in the Pacific during WW2 and later in Korea. He served as Chief-of-Staff of the 42nd Division of the AEF and later commanded the 84th Infantry Brigade on the Western Front. He received multiple decorations and was wounded twice. Refusing to wear a gas-mask, he suffered respiratory problems for the rest of his life.

Field-Marshall Erwin Rommel (Germany) - Whermacht General who commanded Axis forces in the campaigns in France, North Africa and Normandy in WW2. Entered the Great war as a young Lieutenant and eventually rose to command an Infantry Battalion in the AlpenKorps (Mountain-troops), seeing action in France, Italy & Romania. He was wounded three times and on one occasion was captured by Italian troops and later escaped.

Air-Marshall Arthur 'Bomber' Harris (UK) - Controversial commander of British RAF Bomber Command who led the night-bombing offensive against Germany & occupied Europe 1942-45. During WW1, he served in the RFC as a fighter pilot, flying Sopwith Strutters & Camels during 1917, eventually becoming CO of his unit, No 45 Squadron. Credited with destroying 5 German planes.

Air-Marshall Hugh Dowding (UK) - Commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battles of France and Britain, May-October 1940. During WW1, he served in the RFC, commanding 16 Squadron until, during the Battle of the Somme, he was sent back to Britain for insubordination. (He had complained to RFC Commander, General Trenchard, that air-crews required more rest from operations)

General Sir Thomas Blamey (Australia) - Commander-in-Chief of Australian armed forces in WW2. In WW1 he fought at Gallipoli as a Major in army Intelligence and later served on the Western Front as a staff officer.

Field-Marshall Herman Goering (Germany)- Commander of the German Luftwaffe in WW2 and senior Nazi figure. In WW1 after a year in the Infantry, he fought as a fighter-pilot in the German IAF 1916-1918 and took over command of Manfred Von Richtofen's Jagdgeschwader 1 following the latter's death. He was credited with 22 Allied planes destroyed.

Georges Braque (France) - Modernist Painter and co-invented the Cubist Abstract style of painting with his friend Picasso in the decade prior to the war. Joined up in 1914 and served in the French army on the Western Front, sustaining a severe head-wound early in the war.

Sir Frederick Grant Banting (Canada) - Doctor credited with the discovery of the Hormone Insulin as a treatment for Diabetes, awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1923. He served in the Canadian Army as an army doctor on the Western front during WW1 and received the military cross for bravery.

Humphrey Bogart (USA) -Film actor & movie star 1930s-1950s. Enlisted in the US Navy in 1918 and served on board the transport vessel USS Leviathan. Some historians claim he was wounded by shrapnel during a bombing attack.

Buster Keaton (USA) - Silent film star of the 1920s. Served in the US Army 40th Division on the Western Front 1917-18. Contracted a severe ear infection that nearly took his life.

Edwin Hubble (USA) - Scientist and author of the Theory of the Expanding Universe whom the Hubble Telescope is named after. Served in the US Artillery on the Western Front in 1917, having trained with Truman.

Angelo Roncalli (Italy) - Elected by the Vatican as Pope John XXI in 1958. Served in the Italian army as a Medical Corpsman at the Battle of Isonzo River.

Ernst Hemingway (USA) - Journalist & Writer. Rejected by the US Army due to poor vision, he served in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps on the Italian Front where he was wounded in the legs in July 1918 by an Austrian artillery barrage.

Basil Rathbone (UK) - Stage and film actor 1920s- 1950s, starred in the Dawn Patrol and Adventures of Robin Hood. During WW1, he served in the British Infantry in the trenches as a private in the London Scottish Regiment and later as a Lieutenant in the Liverpool Scottish regiment. Was decorated for bravery.

I know this list is just a start. I would love members to add any body they know about. Please don't bother mentioning Adolf Hitler, I don't want him on any list! Pete